Modern China: From the Ming to This Morning
Spring 2016
Class Meeting Times:2:00–3:20 PM, Mondays (M) and Wednesdays (W)Olin-Sang 104 / Instructor: Xing Hang
Office hours: Olin-Sang 118 (M) 3:30–4:30 PM,
(F) 11:00 AM–12:00 PM
Telephone: 781-736-2361
Email:
Course Description and Objectives
The course provides a thematic and chronological survey of China from 1600 until this morning, emphasizing the broad interrelationships of political, social, economic, and literarytrends. We begin with the maturation of a confident, sophisticated, and “modern” universal empire, followed by a play-by-play account of its tumultuous disintegration and collapse in the nineteenth century. We then witness how the bits and pieces of this rubble combined with the imported ideologies of liberalism, nationalism, and communism over the twentieth century to forge the global power of today, itself a work-in-progress toward a new and uncertain “modernity.” In addition, the course will trace the role of Xinjiang, Mongolia, Tibet, and other non-Han regions, as well as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the overseas diaspora in shaping China’s transition from Sinocentric empire to multiethnic nation. The course challenges Eurocentric images of a “timeless” and “isolated” Chinese civilization by situating its historical development in an East Asian and global context.
Through lectures, discussions, visual media,and essays, all based uponthe carefulexaminationof primary documents and select academic scholarship, studentslearntoclearlyconveytheirthoughtsandapply theiranalyticalabilitiesinspeech and writing. These are crucial skills that can transfer into their careers and other aspects of their lives.Success in this four-credit course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of nine hours of study time per week in preparation for class.
Course Requirements
1) Lecture attendance and participation in discussions and debates. 30%
A typical course meeting consists of a mix of lecture and discussion. Lectures emphasize broad historical themes and trends, while discussions are based upon the careful reading of primary documents and selected secondary scholarship for that week. During certain days, listed on the syllabus, we will also hold debates on controversial and/or unresolved historical questions or issues, especially during the second half of the semester and on topics with significant economic and geopolitical ramifications for the present day. Detailed instructions will be provided before each debate. In discussions and debates, students are expected to remain civil and back up whatever they say with evidence and facts. Attendancewillbe takenatthebeginningof everymeeting;twoexcusedabsencesareallowed—any undocumented absences beyondthatcountagainstthefinalgrade(thatis,youwillgetagradeof0permissed meeting).Activeparticipationandengagement,notmerepresence,isnecessarytoearna highgrade.Substantialandfrequenttardinesswillcountasabsences.StudentsshouldhavereadalltheassignmentslistedeachweekintheCourse Outlinebeforethefirst class meeting of the week,withspecificquestionsandissuesinmind.
2) Threeanalytical essays, due 3/17 and 4/23.70%
One key goal of this course is to improve students’ critical thinking and writing skills. Accordingly, they will hand in two5-7 pages double-spaced papers on at least two of our primary readings (20%each). There will also be a final essay (8-10 pages double-spaced) that makes up 30% of the total score, and involves the synthesis of sources from the semester.Detailed instructions will be announced in class.All essaysare to be handed in BEFORE the start of lecture on the stated date, or they will be considered a day late.
Technology Policy
I encourage the use of technology in the classroom, including laptops andtablet PCs, as they are a crucial trend in the future of higher education. However, they are not to be abused for purposes unrelated to the class. I reserve the right to restrict or ban their use if necessary.
General Rules
You are expected to be familiar with and to follow the University’s policies on academic integrity (see ).Faculty may refer any suspected instances of alleged dishonesty to the Office of Student Development and Conduct. Instances of academic dishonesty may result in sanctions including but not limited to, failing grades being issued, educational programs, and other consequences.
No late assignments will be accepted without the prior agreement of the instructor and/or the submission of a valid written explanation.Course overloads and work duties are not acceptable excuses for late assignments or failure to participate fully in other class activities. Late papers will be marked down a letter grade for each day they are late, weekends included.
If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see me immediately.
Any part of thissyllabusis subjecttochangeatthediscretionoftheinstructor.LATTE contains all of the assignments listed below under “Course Outline” and reflects updates and modifications. In cases of conflict, refer to LATTE as a living version of this syllabus.
Required Reading
The following textbook is available for purchase at the Brandeis Bookstore:
Janet Chen, Pei-kai Cheng, and Michael Lestz with Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection, Third Edition (New York: W. W. Norton, 2014).
Assignments from the above reading will be marked in the Course Outline under Text. All other required books and articles, as well as the syllabus, lecture outlines, and debate guidelinesare available online. Reading assignments from LATTE will be marked under (surprise!) LATTE.
For more background and context for lectures, refer toJonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China, Third Edition (New York: W. W. Norton, 2012), available at theBrandeis Bookstore or other venues. Studentscan utilize it as a handy reference and/or to refresh their memories.Note, however, that the book CANNOT substitute for regular lecture attendance, since manythemes and issues will only be covered in class.
Course Outline
Week 11/20 (W): / 1. The Setting
Week 2
1/25 (M):
1/27 (W): / Review the maps, chronology, and Romanization conversion charts
2. Chinese History Review: Four Thousand Years in One Hour
3. The Vibrant World of the Seventeenth Century
Week 3
2/1 (M):
2/3 (W): / Text: Chen et al., 1-53.
4.Inner Asian State-building and Ming Decline
5.Qing Conquest and Consolidation
Week 4
2/8 (M):
2/10 (W): / LATTE: Robert B. Marks, The Origins of the Modern World: AGlobal and Ecological Narrative from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-first Century (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007), 1-20, 95-122.
6. DEBATE: Why No Industrial Development in China?
7. Rotten to the Core
Week 5 / NO CLASS
Week 6 / 2/22 (M):
2/24 (W): / Text: Chen et al., 54-93.
8.ESSAY 1 DUE BEFORE CLASS
Puncture to the Ship: Opium Wars, “Unequal” Treaties
9.A Chinese Armageddon
Week 7
2/29 (M):
3/2 (W): / Text: Chen et al., 94-158.
10. An Effort at Reform
11. Defeat, Demoralization, Desperation
Week 8
3/7 (M):
3/9 (W): / Text: Chen et al., 159-187.
12. Expanded Horizons
13. Collapse of an Empire
Week 9
3/14 (M):
3/16 (W): / Text: Chen et al., 187-243;
LATTE: Lu Xun, Selected Stories (New York: W. W. Norton, 2003), 1-6, 65-112.
14. Shattered Promises, Intellectual Revolution
15. ESSAY 2, TURN IN BEFORE LECTURE
A Tale of Two Parties
Week 10
3/21 (M):
3/23 (W): / Text: Chen et al., 249-344;
Film: China: A Century of Revolution.
16.The Nanjing Decade
17. China in World War II
Week 11
3/28(M):
3/30 (W): / LATTE: Jasper Becker, Hungry Ghosts: Mao’s Secret Famine (New York: Henry Holt, 1998), 58-111, 166-182;
Joseph Ball, “Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward?”Monthly Review, September 21, 2006;
Film: China: A Century of Revolution.
18. Birth of the People’s Republic
19.DEBATE: A Great Leap, to Where?
Week 12
4/4 (M):
4/6 (W): / Text: Chen et al., 441-481;
LATTE: Han Dongping, The Unknown Cultural Revolution: Educational Reforms and Their Impact on China’s Rural Development (New York: Garland Publishing, 2000), 49-75;
Film: China: A Century of Revolution.
20. Fixing the Frontiers
21. DEBATE: Cultural Revolution: Social Progress or Retardation?
Week 13
4/11 (M):
4/13 (W): / LATTE: Zhang Xinxin and Sang Ye, Chinese Lives: An Oral History of Contemporary China (New York: Pantheon, 1987), 3-13, 31-38, 97-104, 140-144.
22. The New Equilibrium
23.Seeking Truth from the Facts
Week 15
4/18 (M):
4/20 (W): / LATTE: Gregory Clark, “Birth of a Massacre Myth,”Japan Times, July 21, 2008 < ;
Brian Becker, “What Really Happened in Tiananmen Square 25 Years Ago?”Global Research <
Film: The Gate of Heavenly Peace.
24. DEBATE: Tiananmen Square: Peaceful Protests, Power Struggle, or Western-backed Coup Attempt?
25. Saying “No” with Trepidation: China during the Nineties
Week 16 / NO CLASS
Week 17
5/2 (M): / Text: Chen et al., 541-611;
Film: Minqi Li, “The New Left in China”
26. FINAL ESSAY DUE BEFORE CLASS (tentative)
Alternate Visions of the “Modern”